Cutting edge ministries take centre stage at Greenbelt

Cutting edge ministries – sometimes known as fresh expressions of church – have played more and more of an important role at Greenbelt in the last few years. And this summer, three of our own home-grown ministries were present at the festival.

mayBe, a community on the edge of Oxford led by the Revd Ian Adams, aims to explore creative simple and playful living in the light of Jesus Christ. They contributed a eucharist in the New Forms cafe, a short film and an art piece to Greenbelt this year.

Ian said: ‘We always have found Greenbelt to be an energising place which encourages us to think and act imaginatively. At the festival we encounter other projects, communities and individuals who are following similar paths to mayBe, and it has been a privilege since 2004 to be involved in a direct way in the flow and exchange of ideas and practice.

‘This year our Eucharist was called 'beautiful day'. The idea was to explore the possibility that God is closer than we can imagine.

‘There was liturgy created for the occasion, a contemplative ritual around the Hebrew name for God ‘Yahweh’, some chants, strong and beautiful visual images both still and video, a soundtrack throughout that included music from the granddaddy of ambient music Eno, and a track composed by mayBe's Jim Saunders. We tried to give everything plenty of time and space, and the Eucharist itself was simple – one of the things we have learned is that very often less is more...’

Also present was the Revd Matt Rees, from the hOME community, based in Oxford. hOME aims to provide a spiritual home for young adults in the city of Oxford who are interested in Christianity but have no place they call their spiritual ‘home’. Matt said: ‘For me, it’s the kind of gathering of the clans, the annual tribal gathering, the modern equivalent of making the annual trip up to the Temple, a marking of the years – has it really been a year? – it’s a kind of marking of time.

‘I love the diversity. I love the celebration and the creativity.’

The Revd Philip Roderick, who runs Contemplative Fire, also had a stall at Greenbelt this year and ran a meditative evening session at the festival. Contemplative Fire provides a ministry which helps people enter deeply into the understanding and teachings of Jesus, using contemplative liturgy.

Thousands packed into the expanded festival which took place at the end of August in fantastic sunshine. Around 18,000 people attended over the three days. The theme of this year’s festival was ‘Heaven in the Ordinary’, which was interpreted in various ways over the weekend. Festival goers were asked to offer their own symbols of the heavenly for an exhibition – tea and chocolate appeared to be the favourites!

Martin Carr, the diocesan representative of USPG was there with his family. He said: ‘Well I like the overall theme, the concept of ‘Heaven in the Ordinary’ that’s quite an interesting idea, but I’ve been meeting all sorts of people that I know from different parts of my life you know from years and years ago to more recently… it’s a great atmosphere for catching up with people.

‘It’s just great finding theology, wacky music, hilarious comedians . . . it’s got it all!

Contributions from Maranda St John Nicolle and Ian Macdonald